Beadlock or tire issue

SnailTrail

Member
I have a set of slabs that I have been running for the last several years with no problems for the most part. Since the end of last winter I have been having issues with all of them losing air. When I take the wheel apart I see that there are a bunch of inserts are low and not seated properly. They're seized in there atm from all the salt they put on the roads here. This ring also has a little corrosion but not too bad. Could the air leak be from the inserts not sitting flush or maybe not putting the tire back on in the exact spot and the ring indents not lining up? Could the lip of the tires be messed up? With all the wheels doing it, it makes me think its the wheels.
 
Typically, air loss comes from ring bolts not being tightened down enough. It can also happen from the bead folding over on the wheel when being seated. Excessive flashing can cause leaks as well. If the tire is old, not enough pressure from the rings, even at proper torque can cause leaks as well. in this case, placing a thin rope on top of the bead so that it's sandwiched between it and the ring will help provide more pressure to seal the leaks.
 
I would guess its from the tires then. Up until now I never had an issue with them losing air. Tires are roughly 3 years old. Cooper STT with maybe 40k on them. They still have good life to them as far as tire depth goes. Im just debating getting new set of non beadlcok wheels since Im back to daily driving it, or new tires. I would hate to get tires and they still leak.
 
I would guess its from the tires then. Up until now I never had an issue with them losing air. Tires are roughly 3 years old. Cooper STT with maybe 40k on them. They still have good life to them as far as tire depth goes. Im just debating getting new set of non beadlcok wheels since Im back to daily driving it, or new tires. I would hate to get tires and they still leak.
Yes, sounds like the tires are the issue. Like I said, you can help this along with a piece of thin rope to help add more pressure to your old tire beads.
 
Thanks Eddie. I'll give the rope a try when I can and see if it works. How thick of a rope would you recommend?
 
I went ahead and just ordered new tires. They needed to be replaced soon anyway. My question now is will an insert like this cause a leak? Im going to try and put heat to it to see if I can get it to break free but if not I dont want to go through the hassle of mounting the tire just to take it back off cause its leaking.
 
Pic of the insert
I had a bunch of inserts like that on my Chamber Pro's when I took them apart. Since the bolt was showing thru before I took it apart, I didn't see it as an issue and not causing leaks. Based on the new inserts I bought, I figured there was either some machining in the threads that allowed the bolts to push them down like that. I've had to use a tap to chase some of the insert threads before putting them in.

If those are like what I dealt with, the red loctite they use on the inserts makes them a bear to take out. I used a heat gun to heat it up then sprayed them with WD40 penetrant. On those that had a lot of corrosion and didn't break free right away, adding hydrogen peroxide loosened them up (I put a cork from the bottom to hold the fluid in the threads to let it work better.

I bought a cheap long handle wide screwdriver and ground it to fit without touching the threads on the wheel. make sure you weaken the loctite before trying to back out/push thru the inserts, I broke the tabs on the insert tool trying to remove the wheel level inserts before weakening the loctite.

Once you get them out you can use a tap to clean up the threads, measure the the outer insert threads for the proper tap.

I bought 2 taps, one for the outer insert threads and one for the inner (bolt) threads. it's been a royal PIA but dealing with this many corroded bolts has been a bigger PIA.

Texas humidity is corrosion hell for dissimilar metals, next time I put them together I'm using anti-seize on the bolts.

long winded I know lol
 
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